Actor, host, engineer, and artist Grant Imahara was a man of many talents. He was most well-known for his roles as the host of hit science show MythBusters and Netflix’s White Rabbit Project.
Imahara’s stint on MythBusters started when he joined in its third season. He would go on to co-host more than 200 episodes from 2005 to 2014. Unfortunately, the 49-year-old died suddenly due to a brain aneurysm. Many co-stars have taken to social media to express their grief over the loss of a good friend.
Imahara’s MythBusters and White Rabbit Project co-host Byron tweeted a photo of herself with Imahara and fellow Mythbusters alum Tory Belleci, saying that she wished she “had a time machine”.
A representative for Discovery (via Variety) also said in a statement on Monday that “[They were] heartbroken to hear this sad news about Grant. He was an important part of [the] Discovery family and a really wonderful man. [Their] thoughts and prayers go out to his family.”
Another MythBusters co-host Adam Savage also tweeted his loss and praised Imahara for his gentle and giving nature.
Imahara has even played Hikaru Sulu, the lieutenant on the USS Enterprise in the fan-made web series Star Trek Continues. The series was an unofficial continuation of Star Trek: The Original Series. He was also an avid tabletop gamer, having guest-starred on multiple episodes of Wil Wheaton’s TableTop web series on Geek and Sundry.
An engineer and roboticist by training, Imahara pursued a 9-year long career at Lucasfilm under the THX and later Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) divisions. During that time he became chief model maker, specialising in animatronics. His credits include the Star Wars prequels, The Matrix Reloaded, Van Helsing, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, A.I. Artificial Intelligence and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.
Being a compassionate man, Imahara even decided to embark on a personal project to build fully animatronic Baby Yoda to cheer up sick kids that have been hospitalised. He shared his entire work process with CNET, explaining the details of the digital modeling, 3D printing and robotics.
Grant Imahara was a great man who would be dearly missed by all who knew him, our hearts go out to his family and friends.
Fumiko is an avid fan of spreading herself too thin and drowning in too many fandoms. She would love to spend all day reading fanfiction at home and crying.
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